“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness, He is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish” (2 Peter 3:9)
This morning as I ran, I pondered the Lord’s faithfulness to us. This was my first run after my 18 miles and my muscles were not completely healed, which slowed me down. I recently started reading a book called the “The runners body.” I’m so excited to learn about how the muscles work and what is going on in my body as I’m training.
In comparison, we don’t know what goes on in the spiritual world. We don’t realize sometimes that a really stressful time (running 18 miles) can slow us down. So many times we look at this a negative thing, when really we’re just in recovery. We forget we have a limited perspective. We CAN’T see. God tells us that His ways are not our ways. So many times, we beg to SEE what God is doing instead of TRUSTING Him. He is a faithful God. He will never leave us or forsake us. We will always have FAITH, HOPE and LOVE (1 Cor 13:13). They will never be taken from us.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Running from Dogs
I’m scared of dogs and so far in my running career I haven’t had to face many of them. Well about 6 weeks ago I was running and approaching a dog that was lying in the road. He got up and started barking at me. Well my normal approach is to yell at the dog “GO HOME!” “GO HOME!” After yelling a couple of times at this dog to go home, I realized he obviously was not going to listen to me as he was continuing to run at me. It was almost time to turn around and head back towards my house and I was listening for the voice on my IPOD that told me “halfway point” Well I never heard the voice, but decided I needed to turn and run from this dog. Fear took over as I turned and ran from him. I was helpless and sure that this dog was going to eat me. I was running away praying “god please protect me from this dog, please protect me from this dog.” Well it was all fine and good. After that run I developed a fear of every dog. I had lost my authority that had worked so well in the past. “GO HOME!” Most of the dogs had listened to me but now that my technique stopped working I was afraid of dogs.
The next long run I went on I was going to be running in un-charted territory. This meaning that I don’t know the dogs on the roads. Most of the roads I run on, I know what dogs are there and I know how to handle them. I can manage my fear because I know what to expect. Well I had a little whistle that I could blow at them, but not knowing if it would work or not I was pretty scared. The run was 16 miles and it actually went well EXCEPT for the dogs. I ran most of the time being scared of the unknown. My legs were great and my body didn’t really hurt, but I had to expend SO much energy on the stupid dogs.
SO the uncharted territory was at the beginning of my run. I past that and I was relieved thinking that I knew all the dogs from now on and that one that had chased me a couple of weeks ago, well I was gonna find a stick to take care of him. So I’m running and all of the sudden these 2 black cocker spaniels came running towards me. Well fear took over and I begin yelling at the top of my lungs “GO HOME! GO HOME! GO HOME! GO HOME!” The dog make it to my feet and it’s just a yapping and I’m just a yelling…GO HOME. If you had a video camera I would be rich because I’m sure it was hilarious to see a grown woman yelling a little dog. But I was just sure that dog was gonna eat me. Finally a car came and deterred the dog long enough for me to make it past the house. So the next step was getting ready for that dumb dog that tried to eat me. As I was approaching the house I was looking for sticks along the way. I was gonna be prepared this time. I finally found a stick and was running with it was a couple of steps and decided that it was too much trouble to carry. So I just threw it down. Well turns out that dog wasn’t even there that time. So I was able to run home in peace.
After all these experiences with dogs I have realized how quickly fear can overcome us where we can’t think rationally. That little black dog wasn’t going to hurt me and if I had just kept running it may have even left me alone. But I fought him and expended SO much energy on it and he didn’t hurt me.
This is SO true with other fears. Whatever it may be…fear of being alone, fear of heights, fear that what has happened in the past will happen again. How many times do we fear something that NEVER comes true?!?
The next long run I went on I was going to be running in un-charted territory. This meaning that I don’t know the dogs on the roads. Most of the roads I run on, I know what dogs are there and I know how to handle them. I can manage my fear because I know what to expect. Well I had a little whistle that I could blow at them, but not knowing if it would work or not I was pretty scared. The run was 16 miles and it actually went well EXCEPT for the dogs. I ran most of the time being scared of the unknown. My legs were great and my body didn’t really hurt, but I had to expend SO much energy on the stupid dogs.
SO the uncharted territory was at the beginning of my run. I past that and I was relieved thinking that I knew all the dogs from now on and that one that had chased me a couple of weeks ago, well I was gonna find a stick to take care of him. So I’m running and all of the sudden these 2 black cocker spaniels came running towards me. Well fear took over and I begin yelling at the top of my lungs “GO HOME! GO HOME! GO HOME! GO HOME!” The dog make it to my feet and it’s just a yapping and I’m just a yelling…GO HOME. If you had a video camera I would be rich because I’m sure it was hilarious to see a grown woman yelling a little dog. But I was just sure that dog was gonna eat me. Finally a car came and deterred the dog long enough for me to make it past the house. So the next step was getting ready for that dumb dog that tried to eat me. As I was approaching the house I was looking for sticks along the way. I was gonna be prepared this time. I finally found a stick and was running with it was a couple of steps and decided that it was too much trouble to carry. So I just threw it down. Well turns out that dog wasn’t even there that time. So I was able to run home in peace.
After all these experiences with dogs I have realized how quickly fear can overcome us where we can’t think rationally. That little black dog wasn’t going to hurt me and if I had just kept running it may have even left me alone. But I fought him and expended SO much energy on it and he didn’t hurt me.
This is SO true with other fears. Whatever it may be…fear of being alone, fear of heights, fear that what has happened in the past will happen again. How many times do we fear something that NEVER comes true?!?
18 miles and counting
my route for today....http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3182408
So I haven't blogged about training like I have wanted to. Today was my 18 mile run. Amber runs hers tomorrow. I will say that this training is better than my first marathon training mostly because I know that I "can" do it.
I wish that I had the time and energy to share all of my analogies from my run today. (I had 3 hours to think). But I want to update on how the training is going as a whole since I haven't been keeping track.
This time around training is better. I love running (this hasn't changed), but my new thing is being into nutrition. I want to eat right so that my body has the right fuel to run better. I'm waiting for a new book to come in that is about the runners's body. I can't wait! So I have learned to eat whole wheat stuff and try to cut out sugar. I love and am addicted to sugar so I have just cut back.
I have been able to keep better on the schedule this time than my first time. I remember I usually had to take 2 days off after every long run. Well After I ran 14 miles (on a Sat.) I was able to run for 60 minutes a day later on Monday. AND I almost ran 7 miles in that 60 minutes. That's a HUGE improvement for me. I've never been one for speed, but I've been working on it and I'm getting better.
That's the other thing that is different about this training. I have been able to work on speed some. Before I just would get out and run, but this time I have pushed myself more and done what are called "tempo runs." You run at a fast pace for 5 minutes then walk for 2 minutes. Then a couple weeks later you run at a fast pace for 10 minutes and walk for 1 minute. Then a couple of weeks later you run at a fast pace for 20 minutes. This really helped me to get faster. Another thing that has helped my speed is the heat. Let me clarify that during the heat I am SLOW. However running in the heat helps my pace to be faster when it's not so hot. That morning that a ran almost 7 miles in the 60 minutes...well it was really cool out (well for Alabama anyway) and I was able to run that fast cause there was NO heat.
I hate that I haven't kept this up to date during the training. I always have SO many analogies that come from my runs. For some though they will be glad that I don't post as many.
SO as far as today goes. I ran about 18.5 miles in about 3 hours and burned over 1700 calories. I have had some encounters with some dogs along the way in my training. (you can read the former post about my dog experience...it's pretty hilarious) But anyway I took pepper spray with me today to ward off the scary dogs.
At about mile 6 or 7 my calf muscles started to lock up on me and act like they didn't want to work, but I told them (yes I talk to my muscles) that they were gonna have to cut that out cause we had a long way to go. So I kept running through the pain. At about mile 8 I ran past my Grandmother's house and then I saw Ms. Jeanette and Ann. They encouraged me just seeing them.
Thus far I had not had any encounters with dogs. You must know that I’m terrified of dogs. Fear overcomes me and I can’t function. From reading the next post you can see that the fear just gets me. Well today before my run I was reading scriptures about fear and this one really stuck with me “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” As I mentioned in my post about the fear of dogs, fear is something that takes over us where we can’t think rationally or function normally. This scripture that says we have a sound mind took on a new meaning today. I was quoting scripture today to help me not be afraid of the dogs. (I also had pepper spray). I thought of how we have a sound mind because we are able to function normally.
I also thought about how with the dogs I’m not afraid of the one that I know or have run by their house enough to know how to handle them. The ones I’m afraid of are the unknown dogs. But I’m also afraid of the ones that have run after me and scared me, that they might come again. As I was running I was thinking ok…how will I handle that little black dog if he comes running at me again. I was thinking about how we sometimes focus SO much on the problem or the fear and how we’re going to handle when instead we should be focused on God and asking him to give us what we need to face the fears. I was doing that with the dogs on my route. The ones that scared me before haven’t scared me again. We never know what’s going to come our way we have to be focused on the source of strength rather than the problems.
The last 2 miles was the hardest, but I just thought of the marathon and how the last 6 miles is painful every step of the way. My muscles were hurting most of the run today and it made me start thinking about strength and our perspective on strength. Many times we ask God to be our strength and to give us strength. Many times when I ask for strength, I’m envisioning a supernatural immediate power surge of strength. However when I was running today I thought of how the pain that I was experiencing was strength. I was getting strength through this pain. The pain that I was going through will help me on race day to endure. I’ve thought of this before how building strength takes time and we have to just work at it, but it came to me in a new light today.
Enough rambling about running for today. Time to go eat!
So I haven't blogged about training like I have wanted to. Today was my 18 mile run. Amber runs hers tomorrow. I will say that this training is better than my first marathon training mostly because I know that I "can" do it.
I wish that I had the time and energy to share all of my analogies from my run today. (I had 3 hours to think). But I want to update on how the training is going as a whole since I haven't been keeping track.
This time around training is better. I love running (this hasn't changed), but my new thing is being into nutrition. I want to eat right so that my body has the right fuel to run better. I'm waiting for a new book to come in that is about the runners's body. I can't wait! So I have learned to eat whole wheat stuff and try to cut out sugar. I love and am addicted to sugar so I have just cut back.
I have been able to keep better on the schedule this time than my first time. I remember I usually had to take 2 days off after every long run. Well After I ran 14 miles (on a Sat.) I was able to run for 60 minutes a day later on Monday. AND I almost ran 7 miles in that 60 minutes. That's a HUGE improvement for me. I've never been one for speed, but I've been working on it and I'm getting better.
That's the other thing that is different about this training. I have been able to work on speed some. Before I just would get out and run, but this time I have pushed myself more and done what are called "tempo runs." You run at a fast pace for 5 minutes then walk for 2 minutes. Then a couple weeks later you run at a fast pace for 10 minutes and walk for 1 minute. Then a couple of weeks later you run at a fast pace for 20 minutes. This really helped me to get faster. Another thing that has helped my speed is the heat. Let me clarify that during the heat I am SLOW. However running in the heat helps my pace to be faster when it's not so hot. That morning that a ran almost 7 miles in the 60 minutes...well it was really cool out (well for Alabama anyway) and I was able to run that fast cause there was NO heat.
I hate that I haven't kept this up to date during the training. I always have SO many analogies that come from my runs. For some though they will be glad that I don't post as many.
SO as far as today goes. I ran about 18.5 miles in about 3 hours and burned over 1700 calories. I have had some encounters with some dogs along the way in my training. (you can read the former post about my dog experience...it's pretty hilarious) But anyway I took pepper spray with me today to ward off the scary dogs.
At about mile 6 or 7 my calf muscles started to lock up on me and act like they didn't want to work, but I told them (yes I talk to my muscles) that they were gonna have to cut that out cause we had a long way to go. So I kept running through the pain. At about mile 8 I ran past my Grandmother's house and then I saw Ms. Jeanette and Ann. They encouraged me just seeing them.
Thus far I had not had any encounters with dogs. You must know that I’m terrified of dogs. Fear overcomes me and I can’t function. From reading the next post you can see that the fear just gets me. Well today before my run I was reading scriptures about fear and this one really stuck with me “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” As I mentioned in my post about the fear of dogs, fear is something that takes over us where we can’t think rationally or function normally. This scripture that says we have a sound mind took on a new meaning today. I was quoting scripture today to help me not be afraid of the dogs. (I also had pepper spray). I thought of how we have a sound mind because we are able to function normally.
I also thought about how with the dogs I’m not afraid of the one that I know or have run by their house enough to know how to handle them. The ones I’m afraid of are the unknown dogs. But I’m also afraid of the ones that have run after me and scared me, that they might come again. As I was running I was thinking ok…how will I handle that little black dog if he comes running at me again. I was thinking about how we sometimes focus SO much on the problem or the fear and how we’re going to handle when instead we should be focused on God and asking him to give us what we need to face the fears. I was doing that with the dogs on my route. The ones that scared me before haven’t scared me again. We never know what’s going to come our way we have to be focused on the source of strength rather than the problems.
The last 2 miles was the hardest, but I just thought of the marathon and how the last 6 miles is painful every step of the way. My muscles were hurting most of the run today and it made me start thinking about strength and our perspective on strength. Many times we ask God to be our strength and to give us strength. Many times when I ask for strength, I’m envisioning a supernatural immediate power surge of strength. However when I was running today I thought of how the pain that I was experiencing was strength. I was getting strength through this pain. The pain that I was going through will help me on race day to endure. I’ve thought of this before how building strength takes time and we have to just work at it, but it came to me in a new light today.
Enough rambling about running for today. Time to go eat!
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